


The King Conquers

by cynx_17_kh



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Anxiety, Canon Compliant, Established Relationship, Fluff, I'm Sorry, Kings On Ice, Kings on Ice Zine, Long-Distance Relationship, Post-Canon, Wedding Planning, i was writing this and my flower gay appeared out of nowhere towards the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-02
Updated: 2018-11-02
Packaged: 2019-08-14 16:31:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16496174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cynx_17_kh/pseuds/cynx_17_kh
Summary: With the Grand Prix final in the past, JJ has no choice but to press forward. However, that turns out to be a more difficult task than he imagined. The pressure of continuing to win his fiancée’s heart as well as the memory of his first anxiety attack become daunting. Thankfully, Isabella continues to be his love and support.





	The King Conquers

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for the [Kings On Ice Zine](https://kingsonicezine.tumblr.com/) and we're allowed to post our completed pieces now! I'm a couple weeks late to the posting party, but I hope you all enjoy this! I had so much fun writing about JJ on and off the ice!
> 
> Writing for this zine was such an honor and an overall amazing first zine experience! I may have fallen slightly out of the Yuri On Ice fandom, but I'm really hoping to swing back in to it and post more for it and maybe apply to more YoI zines in the future!

The Grand Prix Final had been a rough time for Jean-Jacques Leroy. Ever since announcing his engagement to Isabella, he had felt an increased pressure to perform. He was then faced with with a challenge that he had never faced before. He had an anxiety attack in the middle of his short program and he hadn’t stopped thinking about it since then. It had been almost two months since it had happened with no further occurrences, and yet there he was in his hotel room the morning of his Four Continent Championships short program skate, worrying over nothing. 

Isabella had been wonderful and reassured him time and time again that she wanted him to do his best for himself, and not for her; that there was no extra pressure on him to do well just because they were engaged. She still wanted to marry him no matter what. Knowing that made him feel better, but there was still a part of his brain that insisted on telling him that she was lying, which was beyond ridiculous considering her super supportive reaction after his previous attack. Jean couldn’t have asked for a better person to be his fiancé. As soon as they had returned to their hotel room that night, she had consoled him and made him feel better about the entire incident. She really was perfect.

As he walked out of his hotel and got into his cab with his coaches, he thought about texting Yuuri Katsuki and asking him for advice on coping with anxiety. He had learned of Yuuri’s anxiety at the Grand Prix Final banquet. Yuuri had approached him and mentioned that he struggled with anxiety as well, and was willing to offer any help that he could. Jean didn’t want to admit to himself that he had anxiety, but that’s the way things were looking for him. He wanted to believe that the first attack was due to him not having enough sleep or not warming up enough beforehand, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized that he was just trying to find excuses to avoid the inevitable. He just hoped that he didn’t have another attack on the ice today because he really wanted to do well for his beloved Isabella, to show the world that he was still on top. He managed to get bronze at the GPF, but here at 4CC he’d aim for nothing less than gold. It was his chance to prove that he wouldn’t let one anxiety attack continue to affect him or his career.

Nevertheless, he found himself shooting a quick message to Yuuri, asking if they could talk before they both got on the ice. Even though he’d convinced himself that there wouldn’t be a repeat of the disaster at the GPF, just thinking about the upcoming program was beginning to make his chest tighten. 

He found himself sitting on a bench in the locker room next to Yuuri but didn’t speak. He had no idea what to say to the other man. In fact, he had only asked if they could talk in his text message. He hadn’t mentioned anything about his anxiety being why he wanted to meet with him in the first place.

“Are you okay? You look nervous and on edge,” Yuuri asked, startling Jean out of his thought process. At least he didn’t have to be the one to start the conversation now.

“Yeah, I’m great! Why wouldn’t I be?” He grimaced as soon as he finished speaking. With a sigh, he started again. “I’m sorry, that’s not true. I’m having some... Issues. Uh, remember back at the Grand Prix Final banquet when we talked? I think I’d like to take you up on your offer.”

“What offer? I’m not sure I remember what you’re referring to, I’m afraid,” Yuuri asked, rubbing the back of his neck and smiling nervously.

“Your offer to help me with... “ He cleared his throat and lowered his voice. He hadn’t voiced his concerns about having anxiety to anyone except for Isabella. Talking about it to Yuuri was harder than he expected. “To help me with anxiety. I don’t know how to deal with it. At all. In fact… I’ve been trying to ignore it entirely. Considering your offer and the fact we’re both ice skaters, I figured you would be the best person to go to for help?”

“Oh! Well, yes I suppose you’re right about that. What are you anxious about?”

“Failure, mostly. I don’t want to disappoint Isabella or my parents.” He refused to meet Yuuri’s questioning gaze, instead choosing to look at the tiled floor. It was hard for him to talk about any of this. Admitting weaknesses had never really been his strong suit. 

“I see. I understand completely. In fact, I’m the same way, which is why you contacted me, I’m assuming.”

“Ah, yes. That would be it. How do you manage it? You had such a bad score at last year’s Grand Prix and then you came back stronger than ever this season.”

“It’s not easy, and besides. I have Viktor now. He helps calm me down and pushes me to do my best, with ‘best’ being a subjective term. I’m not physically capable of being 100% perfect at all time, so as long as I do the absolute best that I can each performance, then I don’t have a reason to be anxious because I know I’ve done my best. With his love and constant support, I’m able to skate with a clear mind.”

“That sounds so simple, though. Why’d you say that it wasn’t easy?” 

Yuuri grimaced slightly. “Well, you see, that’s the catch. Anxiety doesn’t care if you’ve done your best. It’ll still plant seeds of doubt in your mind. You have to find your own way to fight that off. I’m sure Isabella will be more than willing to help you with that part.” He paused, and then spoke quickly as if realizing that he didn’t fully know Jean’s situation.  “Anxiety also affects every single one of us differently. My methods may not work for you.”

“It’s not that I don’t believe you, I’m just having trouble grasping all of this. It’s very new to me. Also, what do you do when Viktor can’t be with you?”

“We text a lot. He makes it a point to send me lots of reassuring messages to comfort me.”

“Okay, that makes sense. I can see how that works.” Jean nodded and gazed at the floor, thinking about everything they had talked about. Since she wasn’t able to go to this competition with him due to her own work schedule, he decided that he was going to text Isabella later, maybe even immediately after finishing talking to Yuuri, and tell her all of this new information. It sounded like it would help, but only time would tell. He was sad that she wasn’t able to be with him, and perhaps even a little anxious about it. He knew better, but inside he still wondered if Isabella would ever go to one of his competitions again. He felt slightly out of breath as his mind kicked into overdrive. Maybe she was too embarrassed to see him fail in person so she made up the excuse of not being able to take off from work, maybe-

His phone buzzing in his jacket pocket brought him back down to Earth for a moment. Taking it out to check it, he saw that Isabella had texted him.

_ Good luck today! You’re going to do great. I wish I could be there today to cheer you on in person, but know that I’m cheering for you back home! I love you so much, and I can’t wait to see you again, my king. _

Suddenly, everything that Yuuri had said about having love and support to help get through moments of anxiety made sense. His chest no longer felt tight, and his mind was basically clear. Just a small message from her made him feel significantly better. He saw Yuuri smile at him as he stood up and left to go talk with Viktor. 

Jean skated that day with a new mindset. His mind was clear, and his heart was strong. He had his fiancé rooting for him back home and sending him reassuring messages the entire time he was on the ice, even though she knew that he wouldn’t see them until after he went to the kiss and cry. His parents congratulated him on skating well, going so far as to tell him that he had was definitely going to take a medal home with him. He didn’t really care if he had medaled or not, because what mattered was that he had found a new starting point for his career.

The silver medal that hung around his neck while he stood on the podium was going to be a the start of Jean-Jacques Leroy’s true successes. He had skated the absolute best that he could that day and he now understood that was the most important about it.

Standing above him on the podium was none other than Yuuri Katsuki who had gotten his hard-earned gold. They looked at each other and smiled, nodding congratulations and thanks. Otabek was standing on the third place podium beaming with pride. Yuuri glanced at him and then looked back to Jean. He beckoned them onto the first place spot and lent them a hand as they climbed up to join him. Jean was proud of all of them, and Yuuri clearly was too. Otabek and Jean wrapped an arm around Yuuri as they posed for their final pictures.

~~~

After the excitement of the competition had died down, Jean went back to his hotel room and opened his laptop. He had promised Isabella that they could Skype and work on wedding planning in the evening. They still had so much to organize and plan; for instance, they had no idea when or where to hold the wedding. Planning a wedding was a lot more work than either one of them had anticipated. They thankfully had the full support of both of their parents who were all more than willing to give assistance when necessary. Yuuri and Viktor had even offered to help, since they were a bit ahead of Jean and Bella in the planning process. Jean was extremely grateful for that, but tonight was going to be just him and his Isabella setting up the wedding of their dreams. 

While his laptop was starting up, he went over to his suitcase and pulled out his wedding planning binder that matched Isabella’s perfectly. She had tirelessly worked to make him a duplicate of hers so that when he went to competitions he would have something to look at for planning purposes. It was beautifully crafted and he was always nervous about adding new things to it, but that didn’t matter, as Isabella had said that adding to it was like adding love to the life they were going to share together. 

His laptop automatically logged him into skype and as he was changing into his pajamas, the familiar sound of a Skype call rang out from his computer. Rushing over to the computer, he answered the call and was greeted by the slightly blurry image of his fiancé.

“Isabella, queen of my heart, how I have missed having you near to me!” He spoke theatrically and gestured grandly, finishing greeting his beloved with blowing her a kiss. She was sat at their kitchen table with her own wedding binder and a freshly brewed cup of coffee. Her choice of drink reminded him that he was in a timezone that was twelve hours ahead of her instead of being at the kitchen table next to her. With a soft smile and even softer voice he added a quick ‘good morning’ to the end of his over the top hello.

“Good evening, Jean. You’re so silly, acting as if it’s been months since you saw me last. You’ve only been gone a week!” She giggled and blew him a kiss in return. He noticed that her hair was half tied back and she hadn’t yet put on her daily makeup. She was beautiful. “I’ve missed you too, my king. I wish I could have been there for you today.”

“It’s okay that you weren’t. In the end, you still were amazingly helpful and supportive and that’s really what I need from you.” He reassured her, settling onto the hotel mattress. As she spoke he set the laptop far enough in front of him that he could put his binder in front of him. He laid on his stomach and propped his head up with his hands.

“I’m glad that I was able to help. You know that I am always here for you, and that includes supporting you in whatever way you need me to so that you can be the best that you can be. Now, let’s get to the main reason for this call. Wedding planning! We have to talk flowers tonight. Since we decided on a standard black and white theme but with pops of red to mix it up, I wanted to do something similar with the flowers.” As she spoke, she made vague gestures at some of their already completed things in the wedding binder. 

“Were you thinking about having some red flowers in your bouquet?”

“Yes, I was thinking red and white roses would be good for that but I’m thinking something more than just the bouquet though. I want the color pops to be elsewhere with the flowers.”

“Well…” Jean paused and thought for a moment. “What if we had a small bouquet of flowers on each table? Didn’t you toy with the idea of alternating tablecloths? For the tables with white tablecloths and red runners, there could be a bouquet of white flowers in the center and vice versa for the tables with red tablecloths.”

“Actually… I really like that idea! And the votive candles on each table could have a similar method as that too. Red votives in white frosted holders on the red tables and white votives in red frosted holders on the white tables would be fantastic!”

“You really like it?” He took pride in the fact that his fiancé seemed so excited and genuinely interested in his idea. All of this wedding planning stuff never really was his thing, but if Isabella liked his ideas for their wedding, then that was all he needed to be happy with it.

“Of course! It’s what I needed. Do you think I should do something similar with the bouquets for the bridesmaids?”

“Maybe something a little more subtle would work.”

“I could have each of our wedding parties have a different set flower color. Any suggestions?”

“Oh, you could have the maid of honor and the best man have the opposite color flower! Say that you have the bridesmaids with red flowers and the groomsmen with white flowers. The maid of honor could have a white one and the best man could have a red one.”

“That’s clever, let’s do it. I’m thinking about having our wedding parties have carnations as their flowers, since I’ll have roses. Which, speaking of, I had an idea that I wanted to run by you for my bouquet. Your lapel flower is going to match, but the issue lies in how we’re going to match it to two different colors in my own bouquet.”

“You’re absolutely right, I hadn’t thought of that. What’s your idea?”

“Have you heard of osiria roses?” Bella asked, an excited look on her face. 

“No, I can’t say that I have.”

“These roses are a hybrid breed. Their petals are red on the inside and white on the outside. I think that’s the perfect compromise to this little impasse we have.”

“So we make your bouquet and the flower of my boutonnière out of these osiria roses? Leave it to you to find something so perfect for this. How do you spell their name? I want to look at pictures on my phone while we keep planning.” He yawned after speaking, covering his mouth and squinting his eyes.

“O-s-i-r-i-a.” She said each letter slowly so that he would have a chance to type it out and hit search. She took a drink of her coffee and Jean noticed that she was already almost done with the large mug. “All set?”

“Mhmm. Thanks, Bella.” He took a moment to scroll through pictures of the roses his wife to be had chosen for them. “These are gorgeous flowers. I really think they’re the perfect choice for us.”

“I’m so glad you like them too. I honestly fell in love with them once I saw them. I’ll have pictures and whatnot that we can put into our binders when you come home. Although, Jean, my love. You look exhausted and it’s very late for you over there. Plus, you have an early morning. I think we’ve got a decent amount of stuff sorted for tonight. Get some rest, okay? We’ll see each other soon, my king.”

“Okay, you’re right. I should be home sometime tomorrow afternoon, so we’ll be able to hold each other again tomorrow night.” 

“I’m glad, I’ve really missed sleeping next to you.” She stretched  “Congratulations on the medal today, Jean. You earned it.”

“Thank you, Bella. I love you so much. Have a good day today, okay?”

“I love you too.” She smiled brightly, and Jean felt his heart flutter with adoration. “I will have the the best day that I can if you promise me to get some sleep.”

“I promise I’ll sleep.”

“Then I promise I’ll have a good day. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Until then, my love.” They blew each other a kiss and ended the call. It hadn’t been a very long call, all things considered, but she had been right. It was late and Jean needed to sleep.

After cleaning up all of his things and packing everything that he could the night before his trip, he turned off the lights, climbed into bed under the covers, and took some time to relax. He thought about everything that had happened throughout the day and all that he had learned. He knew that he hadn’t gotten rid of the anxiety that caused him to have difficulties at the Grand Prix Final, but Jean took comfort in knowing that he had a way to combat it and attempt to prevent it in the first place. Everything came back to his beautiful, wonderful Bella and her constant and unwavering support. He couldn’t wait to marry her.

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked this, drop a kudos and a comment telling me that you did! Kudos make me feel better about my writing and nice comments make me want to write more, so please do the thing ^-^
> 
> My tumblrs, if you wanted to do the thing:  
> [@otabaeplisetsnyoom:](https://otabaeplisetsnyoom.tumblr.com/) Talk to me about Kingdom Hearts!  
> [@how-to-train-your-kirishima:](https://how-to-train-your-kirishima.tumblr.com/) Talk to me about My Hero Academia!  
> [@otabaeplisetsky:](https://otabaeplisetsky.tumblr.com/) Talk to me about Yuri!!! on Ice!


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